a thread about why to me, adding a trigger warning to food is only adding to the issue and is not helping

tw // eating disorders for the whole thread

im gonna explain this in the most simple way i can to try and make you understand why its harmful.

when you have an eating disorder, your relationship with food is very unhealthy. i dont think i even needed to say that but im going to

let's say you have a person who is actively trying to recover from their eating disorder. they are trying to see food in a more healthy way, they are trying to see food the way it should be seen; as a normal part of life and nothing to be afraid of or wary of

eds are literally monsters and they occupy your head all the time . if you've gotten to the stage where you can eat and the thoughts you would usually get arent coming, it's a huge milestone, a huge, huge milestone.

dont normalize trigger warning food. it's just verifying everything that the voice in your head wants you to think and its going to make things worse for the long run in your recovery journey

with this part im going to speak from personal experience so that maybe itll make a little more sense im not sure if im being coherent enough

if you are eating and not thinking about the possible side effects it's a huge leap. you've started to slightly normalize in your head

that food isnt something to be cautious of. you then see someone trigger warning food.

trigger warnings are most commonly used with a negative connotation, with things that could harm people, hurt people, scare people.

which is the exact OPPOSITE of the way you should be

seeing it, because now all of a sudden your brain has kicked in gear and now you're hyper aware of the fact that you were eating and now you're panicking and it just keep spiraling and spiraling and spiraling and . it's not fun. it's not fun at all

tw things like explicit mentions of disordered eating, calorie restriction, weight loss, body image. those are the things that hurt people. those things are the problem . NOT THE FOOD. the food is not the issue, the disorder is.

im begging you please dont normalize it

imnot saying that every eating disorder is the same because they're going to affect different people in different ways, but the mentality of food = bad is the common thread. we need to stamp it out. genuinely stop dont put it in your threads of things that need to be twed

we are going to go outside. we are going to see food. it's a part of daily life . a normal part of daily life. its NOT helping

* once again im not trying to invalidate people who do need it tw, im just trying to point out how it can also be a detrimental and harmful thing to be doing

bottom line is: talk to your mutuals with eds about what they feel comfortable with. this thread is just my opinion taking my experience with eds and how certain trigger warnings will affect me and others. the goal of tbe thread wasnt to invalidate people who need it, but to tell

you why to others, it's also a negative thing

again: this is my side of a larger debate. it's not meant to shame people that need these triggers . it's me sharing what is triggering me and im trying to share a perspective that people may not be aware of

ill add this as well: a way to maybe get around this is by using a cw rather than a tw! the connotations arent as negative but you are still letting the people that need to be warned know that you are going to be discussing food so that both sides are safe

tldr: adding a trigger warning to food helps as many people as it hurts and that's why this is a difficult topic to tackle.